I was born by the river in a little tent. And just like that river, I’ve been running ever since. Captivity’s Just Another Word for Nothin’ Left to Shill If you gaze long into an abyss, I’ve a feeling the abyss will start to look an awful lot like Roland Joffe’s Captivity – or, at … Continue reading
I might be straying into alarmist territory here, but is consenting to work with the director of Wild Hogs, a pair of Scientologists and Robin Williams (whose impressive/depressing five-film 2006 output remains wholly unseen by me) evidence of a death wish? I’m only asking because, prior to taking a role in the worse-than-dining-on-newborns* You, Me … Continue reading
It’s not often that Variety‘s foreign box office recap moves me to tears, but this week’s column pulverized me as if it were the final chapters of Great Expectations. Be prepared to have your heart ripped from your chest cavity and stomped on like it just insolently requested the services of your shine box: "With … Continue reading
In 2001, Warners Brothers held a double screening of their upcoming summer movies A.I. and Cats & Dogs at the Steven J. Ross Theater on the Warners lot. They did this because the hype around A.I. had reached a fever pitch and they knew that the press would do anything to see the movie – … Continue reading
It’s been easy sport since the 2002 publication of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film to lambaste David Thomson for losing touch with the modern cinema. There’s his continuing aversion to horror filmmakers (appraisals of Joe Dante, Mario Bava and John Landis are elided in favor of useless entries for barely average hacks like Arthur … Continue reading
Has anyone seen Dom DeLuise lately? I’m beginning to worry. It’s no trick to piss off the level-headed, if all you want is to piss off the level-headed. Despite DVR-ing it, I didn’t actually watch the American Film Institute’s uncalled for update of its 100 Years, 100 Movies list, which blocked out all three hours … Continue reading
I never thought I’d actually be looking forward to the film version of a video game I’ve never played, but having read and enjoyed Skip Woods’s draft of Hitman, I can honestly say I’m expecting something… entertaining at the very least. Though everyone had fun with the early, unofficial, off-the-cuff images of Timothy Olyphant as … Continue reading
The Crop: Righteous Kill The Production Company: Millennium Films The Director: Jon Avnet The Writer: Russell Gewirtz The Actors: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino The Premise: Two New York City detectives hunt a morally indignant serial killer steadily knocking off perps with whom the officers have a history. The Context: Much as we all … Continue reading
I honestly forgot this movie existed. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, the man who’d rather you consider him the screenwriter of the Bourne movies instead of the brains behind The Cutting Edge, Michael Clayton seems like it should be a year-end prestige release. So what’s it doing opening in late September? How about killing … Continue reading
I have generally not been a fan of the American Film Institute’s 100 Years 100 Movies series because they a) honor boring mainstream triumphs, b) act as if Samuel Fuller never existed and c) seem more interested in selling DVDs than sparking an interest in genuinely great movies. Point blank: I think their lists are … Continue reading